Oct 31, 2011

Creamy spinach with a hint of nutmeg is baked in the oven topped with melted cheese for guiltless decadent Holiday side dish. Yes, spinach gratin just got a makeover!

I brought this to my mom's last year for Thanksgiving and everyone loved it. I never did get around to posting it so I knew I had to re-make this once again for all of you to try. This is a must for the holidays but if you want to make this for a smaller gathering, you can easily halve this recipe.

To the person who has trouble squeezing the water out of frozen spinach.Simple solution that is amazing: buy a potato ricer (contraption for making mashed potatoes). Once the spinach has defrosted, place in the ricer, press the handles together, and like magic, all the water comes out without any effort.

To squeeze water from the frozen spinach: place spinach in the center of a kitchen towel, with the long side of towel facing you. Fold long side of towel closest to you up and over spinach, fold opposite long side of towel down over spinach. Grab the towel with your hands, one directly on each side of the "folded in" spinach and start twisting the towel in opposite directions. Do this over a sink of bowl to catch all the liquid! =)

You can use fresh spinach anytime a recipe calls for frozen, but you would have to make a lot!! It really cooks down, I'm not sure off the top of my head how much fresh spinach would yield the same amount of frozen.

To squeeze the liquid, I usually squeeze it with my hands, then place it in paper towels and squeeze it some more as Sylvia mentioned (thanks Sylvia!)

Rancholyn, I am dedicated thi whole week and next week to Thanksgiving recipes only. I am also adding Thanksgiving Recipes to my Index.

Kelli, you can use a 9 x 12 or similar, I usually use one of my oval dishes, not sure how much they hold.

Just found your blog on Tastespotting and I love it! It's so great that you include nutrition facts for your recipes. I can't wait to try some out! This will be a nice not-quite-as-heavy dish for Thanksgiving!

I always have a hard time when the recipe says use a 1.5 quart pan or anything like that, so I have bookmarked this page to help. Maybe one of you can use it too :) http://www.ellenskitchen.com/cooktalk/pansmeas.html

I'm super excited to make this recipe. However, I'm wondering if it would work to use skim milk rather than 2%. We have whole milk and skim in our house and I'd love to not have to buy a third kind. :)

Do you think I could make this a day ahead of time and just throw it in the oven the day of? Or would it get too soggy? Trying to simplify my Thanksgiving DAY. LOL Can't wait to try it! It looks delish!

I made a little batch of this recipe to try it out first, and it was great! I used fresh spinach, but it's a lot of work to cook it beforehand. I'm contributing this dish to my sister in laws' Thanksgiving meal. Thanks!

this is AMAZING! my husband and I just got finished making it together to put in the fridge tomorrow for thanksgiving. didnt add the cheese to the top yet but will do that tomorrow before we bake it, but its so amazing right now after just being mixed together, its heavenly! cannot tell its "skinny" at all! thanks for such a great recipe!

Gina,i made this for thanksgiving, using fresh broccoli and cheddar cheese and it was so great. I steamed the veggies first, and then rinsed them with cold water to stop the cooking, then continued with the recipe as stated. It was great. no one could tell it was a lite recipe! thanks so much.

made this for thanksgiving using fresh spinach. it was yummy but a bit liquidy. i used two whole spinach bunches and that may be a little short. tonight- i used the leftovers and stuffed it into chicken breasts, baked in the oven. SO GOOD! made it with the mashed potato patties! such a good dinner and great way to use up my leftovers! thanks again!

I brought this to the in-laws for dinner last night. My father in law who claims he isn't much of a spinach eater had 2 helpings and asked to keep some for his lunch today. Needless to say it was DELICIOUS and I will definitely be making it again soon. Thank you so much for sharing with us!

Gina, this was fabulous! I used cornstarch to thicken since I have Celiac ... but just awesome! THANK YOU for all your wonderful recipes. I use them often but this is my first comment :) You are making such a difference in my cooking and waisteline!

I just went to Ruth's Chris last week for my husband's birthday and we had their spinach au gratin, which has 550 calories per serving! And you know what? I think this one tastes better! They use cheddar cheese and I think the Gruyere pairs better with the spinach. I am DEFINITELY making this again. The only thing to note was that mine came out to 7 servings. I forgot to buy a third box of frozen spinach, but even if I had added that I can't see how that adds another six servings and I measured each one out. Other than that, this is a fantastic recipe!

The only thing you changed here was cutting down the amount of onions used, cutting 1tb of butter, and swapping a cup of cream for an extra cup of milk instead. For being a simple receipe already I guess you couldnt have done better with this one. Still...2% milk wont be good enough texture wise to be as good as the orginial. Using whole milk (2cups 2%, 1 cup whole) would make a big difference, while still cutting calories.

soy milk is fine, as long as you can find something thicker. The original receipe calls for 2 cups milk and 1 cup cream. She changed it to 3 cups 2% milk so the consistency would work. Using less fatty milk only makes the texture soupier. Thicker the milk = thicker and more decadent veggies. So soy milk is fine, just make sure you use something to bind it all together; Im not sure what's out there to use. Good luck!

Recipe is delicious! Just a tip...I mixed some of the leftovers in a vege eggwhite omlet the next day and it was great! Because of the cheese in the spinach I didn't even have to add extra...healthy and delicious!

Love your recipes and I use them all the time. This looks great for Thanksgiving. Do think it could be made the day before and put in fridge? I like to do all I can do the day before so I have time to visit. Thank you for great - yummy - easy recipes!

My family liked this a lot, even my mom who thought she didn't like cooked spinach! However, I do agree with the one commenter who said this dish was too salty- next time I'll definitely back it off a bit. Other than that, awesome.

Hi, I need your help asap! I made this recipe but it came out kind of liquidy, not like a gratin. I tried baking it for longer with the hope that it would get thicker, but it didn't. What can I do? Thanks!